Don't blame women for Britain's bulging waistlines

Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

Who hasn't given their kids a plate full of oven chips, even if it is bad for them

There’s an obesity crisis – and whose fault is it? Women’s, of course. Or specifically, one woman, Rosie Boycott, who’s said she blamed herself, as co-founder of feminist magazine Spare Rib, for encouraging women to get out of the kitchen and into the workplace. “I said ‘don’t cook, don’t type. You’ll get ahead.’ We lost it. Schools gave up cooking. Everyone gave up cooking,” she told an audience at the Hay Festival on Thursday.

Enough self flagellation, Rosie. Our bulging waistlines haven’t been caused by you telling women in the Seventies that it was OK to reject stereotypes, that we had choices other than being a copy typist or dedicating ourselves to household chores.

Rosie Boycott shouldn't blame herself for encouraging women to break the old stereotypesCredit:
Library of Congress